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Leamington Close

Only two streets in London still have house prices averaging less than £100,000, a survey shows.

Of the tens of thousands of roads across the capital, the title of the cheapest goes to Leamington Close in Harold Hill, near Romford, in the eastern borough of Havering. With an average of £97,800, prices are less than a third of the typical London figure of £300,000 to £350,000.

The second cheapest street is Willow Tree Walk, off the A222 in Bromley, where the average price is £99,300.

The survey by property website Mouseprice shows the extent of rampant house price inflation over the past few years. In January, only 43 homes changed hands in London for less than £100,000 - down 66 per cent on the same month last year. By contrast, 67 properties were bought for more than £2 million.

Leamington Close is a cul-de-sac of Fifties red-brick blocks on the Harold Hill estate. Most are council homes but 10 have been sold under the right to buy laws and five of these have since been resold on the open market.

Clare Williams, 19, said she hoped to buy the one-bedroom council flat where she lives with 13-month-old son Bailee.

She added: "It's a bit grim and it's not much, but it's what I can afford. It's not a bad place to bring up my child. There are no gangs. Doctors, shops and a big playground are a short walk away and I'm told the schools are OK."

Eileen Langley-Fogg, 84, who has lived in the road for 15 years, said: "We don't have CCTV, we have a communal washing line. You wouldn't get many estates in London where you could hang up your clothes and they wouldn't go missing."

Near the A12 and the M25, Harold Hill is a walk away fromgreen space in Dagnam Park and the Duck Wood Community Nature Reserve. Harold Wood train station, half an hour from Liverpool Street, is not far. Also in the area are Harold Wood Hospital, Havering College of Further and Higher Education and the Harold Hill industrial estate.

But estate agent Alan Bowdery of Robert Parish and Co admitted demand was poor and said prices on the close had started falling last year by "two or

three per cent". The third cheapest street in the survey is also in Harold Hill - Kingsbridge Circus - where the average price is £101,700.

A Mouseprice spokesman said: "The cheapest postcode is in an area with relatively high unemployment and low rates of people with higher education. Most property is ex-council flats. On the other hand, the prices attract first-time buyers who can afford nothing else. Investors are also keen on ex-council property."

The survey reveals the cheapest address in England is Oxford Street in South Elmsall, West Yorkshire, where the average price is £25,600.